Lens Composition and Camera Angles

What do long shots, medium shots and close up shots mean in relation to each other?

    In relation to each other, the scene reveals more context and setting the further from the subject and more emotion the closer to the subject, specifically their face. An extreme long shot can show the location and context and is an establishing shot. A long shot establishes the subject of the scene and a bit less of the setting. The full shot shows the entire subject from head to toe. A medium shot is close enough to show facial expressions but also far enough to show a lot of the actor's body language. A close up more intimately shows the subject and can add more emotion via the talent's acting and facials. The extreme close up can effectively illustrate some subtler details in the face.

Shot Framing

What are the key differences between full, medium and close up shots?  How does this apply to over the shoulder shots?  Two shots?  How do different lenses affect these shots?

    A full shot shows the subject's entire body—be sure not to cut off their feet as it will look sloppy if you have no reason to do so. A medium full shot cuts off the subjects legs below the knee. A medium shot frames the subject above their waist area. A close shot is from the breast area and up and a close up shot is mainly just the subject's head. Once you start cutting off the head or chin, this is called an extreme close up shot.

    These types of shots are still applicable with over-the-shoulder shots and two shots as those are angles and they don't affect the type of shot besides having more than one subject in the two shot or having a foreground element in the over-the-shoulder shot. This makes me think that these types of shot are applicable to a lot of things, not just a single subject that is standing still and fully visible.

    Different lenses can make the shots look a little different based on the characteristics of the lens, otherwise they can produce the same type's of shots. The lens won't affect framing, thus the only way to know what lens you should use for a specific look is through experience. Wide angle lenses can distort the features of the subject the closer you are, which can be useful if filming something that's meant to be funny. Some lenses require you to be at different distances from the subject in order to create a specific type of framing, such as using a longer lens at a greater distance. However, the greater the distance, the flatter the subject will look and bring background elements closer. 

Benro Tripod Review

What are three key things to remember after watching this video when using the Benro tripod?

    Three key things to remember when using the Benro tripod is the tilt lock, the tilt and pan drag, and counter-balancing. The tilt lock is located on the left side below the top plate lock. You should always be using the tilt lock, locking it in place prevents the camera from tilting and unlocking it is SUPER important as it will damage the head if you don't. The tilt drag is located on the head and the pan drag is located at the bottom of the head. These wheels allow you to increase the drag when tilting or panning, adding tension. The last thing is counter-balancing, which is one of the vertical wheels located on the head. Starting at 0, each setting is made for different weights: 0, 5.5, 9.9, 14.3, 17.6 lbs. This counter-balance will help in balancing the camera on the tripod and prevent it from tilting forward or backwards on it's own as easily. In addition to the counter-balance, you need to also move the top plate forward or backwards until the camera is balanced.

Lead Room

What is look room?  What is lead room?  What are they important to the video you are shooting?

    Look room is the space in front of a subject's face. A general rule of look room is to follow the rule of thirds and place the subject's eye on the top vertical line and leave two thirds of the room in front of them. Look room is important as not having enough will make the shot feel boxed in and claustrophobic, which can be used if that is the intent but otherwise isn't something that you want. Lead room is the space in front of a moving object. This is important as short siding a moving object makes the audience uneasy due to the lack of certainty in where they are going. The main issue with not having enough of either room is that it can make the audience feel uncomfortable, which is a problem if it's for a shot that isn't meant to do that.

Headroom

What is headroom? Why is it important to the videos you are making?

    Headroom is the space between the top of the subject's head and the top of the frame. Headroom is variable depending on the style and type of shot. Headroom is important to the videos I'm making as it creates visual balance. If there's not enough headroom, the shot starts to crop the subject's head and makes it feel claustrophobic. If there's too much, the shot feels bottom heavy and unbalanced. In most circumstances, you can use the rule of thirds and place the eyes on the top horizontal line to have a balanced headroom. Although it helps, when it comes to wider shots than medium shots or tighter shots like extreme close ups, putting the eyes on the third line isn't going to balance the headroom. Instead, with wider shots that show a subject's entire body, you should focus on symmetry and have an equal amount of space under and above the subject. This guideline is also useful for close ups as well.

What are three key tips to hand-holding your camcorder?  How can you implement these starting today?

    Three key tips to hand-holding your camcorder are holding it close to your body, not zooming in too much, and choosing the best location. Holding the camcorder closer to your body helps make it more stable and also put less strain on your arms. Zooming in too much makes it harder to keep the subject in focus and makes smaller movements look bigger, causing the image to be shakier. Choosing the best location is important as having the right lighting elements and possibly composition will greatly improve the visuals and the ease when recording hand-held. I can implement these starting to day by remembering these tips; hold the camcorder close to my body, don't zoom in too much, and be aware of visual details like lighting and composition (rule of thirds, more light on the subject than the background, etc.)

Framing Good Shots

What is headroom?  What is look room? What lead room?  Why are each of these important for your composition?

    Headroom is the space between the top of the frame and the top of the subject's head. This is important for your composition as having too much headroom or too little headroom makes the image appear odd to the audience by making the person either look like they're sinking or look like they'll bump their head. Look room is the amount of space in front of a subject's face. This is important because it gives the impression that the subject is talking to someone or looking at something off screen and not having enough space can make them appear confined. Lead room is a similar concept to look room, only with moving objects such as cars. This is important because giving room in front of a moving object makes it look like it has somewhere to go and that it won't be blocked by the edge of the screen.

Gain in Videography

What is gain in video?  What is it used for?  What are some risks using it?

    Gain in videography, according to the article, is the relative difference between the input and the output video signal. Gain is used for brightening up low lit or dark videos. The way that it does this is by increasing the sensitivity of the camera sensor, amplifying the video signal electronically by increasing the voltage of the pixels. A risk in increasing the gain is that more noise will be visible on camera. This is because by increasing the voltage of the pixels, gain does the same for the noise, making it brighter and more obvious. Because of this, people recommend to use a lower gain and to instead light the subject better.

The ND Filter

What is an ND filter?  Why should you use an ND filter while shooting video?

    ND stands for Neutral Density. An ND filter is essentially sunglasses for the camera. It allows you to change the exposure without altering other settings like the ISO, shutter speed, or f-stop. This allows you to use those setting for the other effects that they bring, such as the depth of field and motion blur.

    You should use an ND filter while shooting video because of the fact that it can change exposure without any other effect. For instance, if you're trying to shoot outside, you'll have to lower the exposure greatly for anything to be visible. However, if you do so with the aperture, you'll lose a shallow depth of field, which can be a desired visual for your project. If you alter the shutter speed, it will make motion choppier or blurrier and less life-like. And changing the gain adds noise to the image. Using an ND filter instead allows you to change the exposure without all the other effects or drawbacks.

Controlling Exposure

What are the key principles needed to control the exposure of your image? What does each of them do?

    The key principles needed to control the exposure of your image are the Aperture, ISO or gain, and shutter speed.

    The aperture is a ring that opens and closes to let more or less light into the lens and also dictates the depth of field. By letting in more light, the image appears brighter and more exposed, and letting in less makes the image darker and less exposed. Depth of field is the range that things on camera are in focus. The range changes based on the size of the aperture; large apertures have a shallow DoF and smaller apertures have a deeper DoF. 

    The ISO or gain is the digital version of Film Speed on movie cameras. The gain controls how sensitive the CCD: the higher the gain, the more sensitive the element and the less light needed in order to be registered. This means that the exposure increases the higher the gain. However, when the gain is higher, the bigger that the grain is and more noise will appear on camera. 

    The shutter speed dictates the amount of motion blur. A slower shutter speed lets in light for a longer period of time and makes motion blurrier while a faster shutter speed makes motion more jittery. This also affects the exposure as a slower shutter speed raises the exposure and the faster shutter speed lowers the exposure.

Focus and Exposure

What do focus and exposure do? How do you check to see if your subject is in focus when shooting? How do you check to make sure your subject is exposed correctly?

    Focus controls whether the subject is sharp or soft and exposure is how much light that the camera takes in, making the image darker or brighter. When shooting, you check to see if your subject is in focus by zooming in on the subject—or their eyes if it's a person—and adjusting the focus ring until the image of the subject is clearly defined, or sharp. Rotating it clockwise will bring the focus closer and rotating it counter-clockwise brings the focus further. To make sure a subject is exposed correctly, you can turn on auto-iris to see what the camera thinks is correct exposure before switching back to manual. This isn't always correct and you should prioritize having correct exposure on the subject, everything else being secondary. To adjust the exposure, you can rotate the iris ring clockwise to close the iris, making it darker or lower exposure, and counter-clockwise to open the iris, making it more exposed or brighter.

Focusing

Why is focusing important?  What is the best way to focus a video camera?

    Focusing is important because having a shot be out of focus means that it is blurry and you can't properly see whatever is in shot. Focusing manually is important because it'll allow you to make camera movements and zoom in without worry of going out of focus. The best way to focus a video camera is to zoom in on the subject—if it is a person, you should zoom in on their eyes—before adjusting the focus ring or wheel on the camera until the subject is in focus. This is the best way as it allows you the freedom to zoom in and out without the subject going out of focus. 

White Balance

What is white balance? What color is outside lighting vs. inside lighting? Why is it important to white-balance your camera?

    White balance is a camera setting that helps make the colors on camera look the same way they do in reality. You should white balance whenever the lighting conditions change. Lighting is measured in degrees Kelven, with outside lighting being blue at 5600k and inside lighting being orange at 3200k. It is important to white-balance your camera as the scene being filmed won't look the same as it does to the naked eye if you don't.

Horror Film Challenge Status

How did your Horror Filmmaking Challenge go over the week?  What were some of the challenges that you encountered?  How did you overcome them?  What do you still have left to do?

    My group's Horror Filmmaking Challenge went pretty well over the week. We had already come up with a concept and some key moments in class on Thursday and called during the week off to finish planning and writing out our vision. We decided on filming on Thursday and divided up the parts on what each person would lead on. Some challenges that we encountered were scheduling and availability. As it was a break, a lot of us had different commitments that would prevent us from meeting. This included trips, rehearsals, and other meetings. Having so many different schedules made figuring out a day to shoot a bit difficult. However we overcame this by communicating and figuring out a day and timeframe that we'd all be free for. The other issue of availability came up as one of our group member's parents wouldn't let them go to the shoot. We had initially wanted to shoot at their house but had to replan and instead shoot at a different location as well as change the actors of our film. Because of this, the workload shifted with them taking on more work behind the scenes for after the shoot. We are mostly finished and have a cut that is ready and are taking feedback from peers.

Sony FS5 Walkthrough

What are some key features of the Sony FS5 camcorder? What are three things you'd like to learn more about it in detail?

    Some key features of the Sony FS5 camcorder is the zoom ring, focus ring, iris, ND filter, white balance, and gain. The zoom and focus ring allow you to properly set up a shot, getting the right focal length and putting the subject in focus. The iris allows you to control the depth of field and exposure, having an auto and push auto option. The ND filter lowers the exposure of the image, acting like sunglasses for the lens, and it has preset settings and variable settings. White balancing makes colors on camera appear the same in real life, having a manual way to set it on top of a preset and auto mode. The gain allows you to electronically brighten the image and it has three presets and an auto mode. Three things that I would like to learn more about in detail are the phantom power setting, how to properly set up audio, and the way that the depth of field changes with the iris.

Camera Unit Goals

Take some time and type up three goals that you have to complete during this unit. How do you plan on accomplishing these?

    Three goals that I have for this unit is to learn how to operate a camera, how to determine what desired visuals are on camera, and understand the capabilities and functions of a camera. I have no clue how to operate a camera whatsoever, so I'm going to try my hardest to absorb everything I can on how to do so and also ask questions to both Mr. Furtado and my peers so that I could at least get the basic idea of how to use a camera. I have an amateur aesthetic eye so I want to be able to have a better idea of what is actually visually appealing and I hope to learn a little more on composition. I don't have any idea what cameras are capable of doing, besides recording, so I really want to learn what functions are possible with cameras. I plan on taking detailed and notes and draw graphics to solidify what I learn in the unit.

The Rule of Six

Summarize each of the six when to make a cut.  Why do you think cutting on emotion and story is so much more important than the other four? 

    Emotion is the most important and is what you want the audience to feel. Story is focused on whether the edit moves the story in a meaningful way, and if ignored can cause boredom or confusion. Rhythm helps the flow and connection of shots in an edit and can help the audience ignore other issues. Eye trace is how the cut affects where the audience looks in a frame and guides them to know what to focus on. 2D plane of screen helps the audience maintain spacial continuity by keeping action along the 180° path of motion. 3D space is how the cut maintains the space and the spacial relations between things in the frame, also following the 180° rule.

    Cutting on emotion and story is so much more important than the other 4 because they are what have the biggest impact on the audience and keeps their attention to the screen. The emotion is the most important because it is what you're trying to make you audience feel by watching the film, it's how the audience is going to be moved or impacted by the movie. Cutting on story is also very important as it prevents confusion and boredom. These two things can kill a movie as it completely breaks the audience out of a story and can cause them to lose their attention on the film.

Time Remapping

Summarize the three techniques that he taught in this lesson? What is a way you could use each of these individual techniques going forward with your video's that you create?

    Three techniques that he taught in this lesson are adjusting the speeding, ramping the speed change, and tweaking the key frames. Adjusting the speed is done by right clicking on a clip's fx badge and selecting time remapping, then dragging the horizontal line up or down to speed up or slow down. You can create a key frame to set when the speed changes, however this can be jarring if you don't ramp. Ramping allows the change of speed to happen smoother and is done by dragging one side of a key frame, which will create the ramp. You can make the ramps even smoother by clicking a key frame, bringing up a box with bezier handles, and moving the handles to round out the corners of the ramp. To move keyframes without splitting them, hold alt while moving it. And to move split keyframes, simply click and drag from the space between the two halves. You can also reverse the video by holding command or control while moving an un-split key frame to do so. I can use each of these techniques to add much more drama to a shot, creating different feelings and emotions by altering the speed.